


A Picture’s Worth

by Lunarium



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Brother-Sister Relationships, Family, Gen, Treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-04
Updated: 2017-06-04
Packaged: 2018-11-08 20:00:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,059
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11088888
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lunarium/pseuds/Lunarium
Summary: Pidge looks back at the photograph and remembers.





	A Picture’s Worth

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Inkyrius](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Inkyrius/gifts).



When she studies the photograph, she cannot fathom how anything in that moment other than her brother could have been the most amazing and important thing to her. The terrible truth was, she barely even remembered the moment their father snapped the photo. She was happy—she was positively _thrilled_ in that moment, beaming from ear to ear, if not also steeped with a little envy that Matt was going to space without her. Just the good ol’ sibling rivalry. 

She didn’t know her brother’s arm was around her the way it was in the picture, all the love in the way he embraced her while he attempted to pose professionally for the camera. There he was, trying to look cool and collected, betraying how goofy he moments before, or how goofy he acted in the car before they pulled out of the driveway that morning. He was one of the top students in his class, but that didn’t mean he didn’t enjoy his share of video games. In fact, they loved to massacre one another at any chance they got at Mercury Gameflux, Space Zombie Warriors II, and AstroRage. Just name it, they played it. They were both the biggest dorks they had ever known. And they must have been goofing off just seconds before this picture was taken. The more she thinks about it, she’s very certain they were. 

It was a beautiful day. 

And this photo, this damn photo, captured all the memories left in the dust of his departure. Not just the cursing to and fro as laser beams blasted and cleaved through planets and astroids, nor the laughter, or loudly munching on chips. It was the affection, the camaraderie, now a void as terrible as the dark space itself. 

Threat of being separated had never occurred to them. Sure, any expedition came with its own risks, but he was Matt Holt. He got this. And if there was any trouble, his father would be with him. _And_ another top student was going on the mission. Everything was going to be fine. 

Katie had sat in the back of the family car, feet out of her loafers and sitting crosslegged in the backseat. She switched from playing a game on her handheld to gazing out the window. Matt sat shotgun while their father drove them to the space station. It was for some paperwork and other things to finalize their mission to Kerberos. Boring things, Matt had said, but Katie had begged them to take her. Just seeing the station would be enough treat for her, before she too could one day go to space. 

And she would. She and Matt had promised to race each other around a moon when that time came. Two small models of automated exploring vehicles, named Rover and Pidge by Matt and Katie respectively, sat at the rear deck. It was their vow. 

The actual experience at the station went a little uneventful. Most of the time she and Matt were separated for one thing or another, all in preparation for his mission. It was making this all too real for her. Her father and brother were really going out there. 

If sadness crept into her heart at the thought of spending time without Matt, it was soon distracted by the sight of the space shuttle overhead. And although she could not touch anything, there were plenty of trinkets to keep her curious and entertained before she was reunited again with her family. 

“See that? That’s my spaceship!” Matt had said, or something to that effect, pointing out the shuttle Katie had already spotted a while ago. 

And this was where her memory began to fog again. They went outside while their father stayed behind to finalize a few more things. It was just the two of them, two young college students passionate about space travel and technology. They weren’t making fools of themselves or being loud or brash, or being a disturbance to anyone else. 

Their spirits were elevated. Nothing could have ever compared to the joy of being here, Matt grabbing her hand and running off to give her a closer look at _his_ spaceship, of the feeling of being like children breaking into a new game to try out together while also trying not to scream or act too improper before their grandparents, to feeling like everything was fine. The sky was a perfectly blue and the heat not too overwhelming; a slight breeze provided relief from the sun on their backs. 

She might have been squeezing Matt’s hand, or hugging him tightly and attempting to pick him off the ground — as if she could! He was a head taller than her, and weighed more too (he always ate more chips.) 

At some point, their father located them, told them to pose for a picture some several yards away from the space shuttle that would take her father and brother to Kerberos (to take them away forever.) The arm went around her and she leaned into Matt, and nothing else came to mind, nothing else but _how_ she felt. 

Maybe this is what photographs were meant to be. Not just to capture moments, to freeze time. They were a conveyer of emotions. Make someone remember, but not just the event. Remember how they _felt_. One look and the person would be transported back in time and relive those emotions all over again. She was so happy she could burst. Matt was too. And they both were so happy and carefree they never thought what would become of their world. 

And now all she had left was this photograph. One look at it and it only brought her pain. It wasn’t fair the people in the picture were so happy and together, and so ignorant of what would happen to them in the near future. Not fair. A terrible picture. 

But the picture also gave her strength. She had to find the young man in the photo, and the man who took it. If she did not, long gone would become the days of car rides and battling one another at video games and talks about space at the dinner table. 

She would bring back those experiences, bring back those important people back into her life. That photo will just keep reminding her of what she’s missing.


End file.
